


The Ibu Investigation

by Whisper132



Series: The Honorable Society of Meddlers [4]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-08
Updated: 2006-03-07
Packaged: 2017-10-23 13:09:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/250644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whisper132/pseuds/Whisper132
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Meddlers set out to determine Ibu’s sexual preferences, embarrass Sengoku, and have snacks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Fudomine was not a visitor-friendly campus. There were several check-in points throughout the campus where visitors were required to sign-in for area access. The reasoning behind this high security approach was the high gang crime rate in the area. Fudomine wanted, oh so very badly, to raise students of good moral character. What it generally got were a bunch of hoodlums of average or sub-par intelligence.

Kamio’s four visitors were not stopping at the check-in points. In fact, Kamio’s four visitors were making it a point to wave at the check-in monitors at every opportunity, Kikumaru in particular. That this activity could get Kamio expelled was not something that was discussed, mainly because Kamio didn’t know he had visitors and, as far as his friends were concerned, there was no reason Kamio ever need know they were there.

“According to the map, the tennis courts are on the other side of that building.” Sengoku ruffled his hand-drawn map, the product of several nights’ investigations.

“Alright, let’s split up. Kikumaru and Sengoku, you work the crowds for info. Marui and I will assess the situation from the rooftop.” Jirou put his hand forward, waiting for the others to do so as well. He waited thirty seconds before throwing a tantrum. “Aw come on guys, this is our big moment! We’re off to help one of our own! It’ll all go wrong if we don’t cheer.”

Sengoku sighed and put his hand in. “So much for our covert operation.”

“Don’t worry, no one suspects anything. The Fudomine uniforms are great.” Marui put his hand in. “But Kikumaru, next time don’t get me a large, okay? I had to have my mom hem it for me and then I had to tell her I was in a play at school when she asked me what I had a weird uniform for.”

“I could’ve had one of my people do it,” Jirou offered, still waiting for Kikumaru to join the cheer.

“Your phone was off. Brother Eiji hurry up!” Marui snapped. The Fudomine uniform was also very scratchy. No wonder Kamio was jumping around all the time.

“Fine.” Kikumaru, who wanted to be on the roof but was stuck with crowd duty because Jirou and Marui were the only ones with binoculars, set his limp hand onto the stack.

“For Kamio and Tachibana,” Jirou said solemnly. “May we bring them together and stop Brother Akira’s whining.”

“Amen.”

&-&

“There sure are a lot of girls down there,” Marui observed, pointing to the courts below. There were at least two clusters of girls on either side of the two practice courts. Sengoku must be loving it down there.

“I guess they don’t get it,” Jirou yawned. Kamio wasn’t at practice yet, so Jirou was probably bored.

“Get what?”

“No one on that team plays mixed doubles.” Jirou said mixed doubles like he was trying to eat some of Sengoku’s not-so-good cookies. Sengoku made great pies and cakes, but his cookies were little round cement skipping stones.

“Someone might.” Marui looked around the court. Ishida and Sakurai played doubles. Uchimura and Mori played doubles. Tachibana was, as far as Marui could discern, asexual. Kamio had “Tachibana’s Biggest Fan” tattooed on his forehead. Ibu looked like a girl…wait, that was it. “Ibu-kun must be straight.”

Jirou dropped his binoculars in favor of clutching at his stomach as he laughed. “You’re kidding right?”

“Nah, look at that hair. He keeps primping it. Yukimura-buchou primps his hair, but not that much. It’s obviously an act. He’s trying to blend in.” Marui’s heart went out to Ibu-kun. It must be tough, living like that.

“Atobe primps his hair just about the same, and I _know_ he’s not interested in mixed doubles.”

Marui chose not to mention that, prior to knowledge of Atobe and Jirou’s relationship, Marui was fairly certain that Atobe would date whatever he felt compelled to, so long as it was pretty. “I hear Ibu roomed with Kajimoto at Senbatsu and they didn’t do anything.” That was Marui’s trump card. No one who was unattached would say no to Kajimoto.

“Maybe he didn’t want to contract a Kajimoto disease.” Jirou’s eyes narrowed into slits. “That skank has more STDs than a disease testing lab.”

Oh right, Kajimoto was a sore subject. It was still a valid argument, though. “We should ask Sengoku if he gets a heterosexual vibe coming off Ibu.”

“We’re here to observe Kamio and Tachibana. Why do we care about Ibu?” Jirou was still upset about the Kajimoto thing; his smile had yet to return.

“Because I’m right and you don’t believe me so I have to prove it now.” Marui took a moment to do a Peter Pan pose.

“I don’t believe you because you’re wrong. He’s probably got someone on the side that his teammates don’t know about.” Jirou stood, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Like who?” The amount of available men who won tennis matches was low in the Kantou area. If Ibu was hunting for a mate, he’d have to go outside the region. That, or date Saeki, who was Fuji’s friend and thus too scary to approach.

“Someone.” Jirou was getting flustered. Marui could tell because Jirou kept trying to stomp his foot but stopped himself a moment after his shoe left the floor. “Fine, you’re on. We’ll call Kikumaru and Sengoku back and discuss the new assignment.”

“We should get Kamio in on this, too. Ibu’s his best friend, so he’s bound to have some good info.” Marui didn’t really think Kamio would be too pleased with the new mission, but he really didn’t have a choice. “While we’re investigating Ibu, we can use the opportunity to discretely monitor Kamio.”

“Is that what you’re going to tell the others to justify the mission?”

“You got a better idea?”

Jirou paused, as if thinking. “No. No, I don’t.”

&-&

Sengoku tried to close his mouth three times before succeeding. His friends were all crazy. “I didn’t know that this was something we had to question.” Sengoku looked over the roof’s edge and down at the tennis courts. “He’s obviously not on my team, so he has to be on yours.”

“What do you mean obviously?” Marui took out a stick of gum then hastily put it back in his pocket. Marui wasn’t allowed to chew gum on Society time. “He could be covering it up to blend in with the rest of the team.”

“You think he’s a closet heterosexual?” Sengoku thought about the idea for no more than three seconds before he burst into laughter. “It would be stupid to hide it when there’s all those unclaimed girls running around.”

“He could think that he’d be persecuted. Your kind aren’t exactly in the majority, Sengoku.” Kikumaru was warming up to Marui and Jirou’s idiotic idea far too easily. Pretty soon, they’d be approaching Ibu with personality tests stolen from magazines.

“There’s one easy way to check.” Jirou paused then, like he always did before he did something that ultimately embarrassed one or all of the group. “Kiyosumi-kun needs to take Ibu-kun to a karaoke bar to pick up girls. If it works, then we know our answer.”

“If he tries to pick up on Sengoku, then we also know our answer.” Kikumaru snickered and patted Sengoku on the back. “Just kidding, just kidding!”

Ibu’s looks _would_ make him a big hit at the karaoke room, but his mumbling got out of hand sometimes. Besides, there was no guarantee that Ibu even liked karaoke to begin with.

“What are you guys doing here?” Kamio burst through the roof door, out of breath and only half in his warm up uniform.

“We’re checking out Ibu,” Jirou answered, doing a little hop of excitement. “We wanna know if he plays mixed doubles or regular doubles.”

“He plays Singles Two, what the hell are you talking about? And why is Sengoku blushing?” Kamio closed the roof door and sat down between Kikumaru and Jirou. “So, what’s this really about?”

“Those two,” Sengoku pointed to Marui and Jirou, “want me to take Ibu to the karaoke room to see if he hits on any of the girls.”

“Why would he do that?” Kamio righted his half-on shirt, removed an energy bar from his pants pocket, and took a big bite.

“Because he likes girls,” Marui stood up and began pacing. “From Renji’s Senbatsu reports, I know that Ibu and Kajimoto shared a room. However, the room was completely silent the entire camp. Also, while he’s very good looking, Ibu is unattached, and I know for sure that he’s had some offers. So, from those two criteria, we can deduce that he’s straight.”

“That’s _his_ idea,” Jirou said, standing as well. “I think that Ibu just hasn’t found the right guy yet. We should be assessing his personality and trying to match him up with his ideal mate.”

“I can’t believe this,” Kamio sighed, staring down at the ground and shaking his head. “Shinji doesn’t think about those things. If he did, then he’d be mumbling about it. I’ve never once heard him mutter so much as a sexual thought.”

“He’s repressed,” Kikumaru chimed in, leaning over to wrap an arm around a slightly shaky Kamio. “Don’t worry, we’ll help him out.”

“Or we could leave it alone,” Sengoku suggested. He knew no one, except maybe Kamio, would go along with it, but it was worth a try.

“We’ve already dedicated ourselves to the task,” Marui argued, pointing a finger to the sky. “We are honor bound to see our mission through!”

When, exactly, this dedication had taken place, Sengoku was unsure. What he did know was that Marui was determined to go forward with this operation. Marui didn’t shut up until he got his way. At least Sengoku’s part in the mission was a small one. “So I guess that means I need to get down there and drag him to karaoke, huh?” It would be weird, walking up in a Fudomine uniform. If anyone pointed it out, Sengoku would just ignore them. Until he had to scratch, that was. Even though it was always needing to be bleached, the Yamabuki uniform really was better.

Kamio stood up with a long sigh. “Come on, I’ll take you into the courts. We can pretend that you’re here for a practice game or something.” Kamio led Sengoku off the roof, through the fangirls, and on toward doom.


	2. Chapter 2

Why was Kamio bringing friends to practice? Tachibana said that distractions at practice rendered any work you did null and void. Practice was for work, not for socializing. And why were two of them in Fudomine uniforms? Seigaku’s Kikumaru and Yamabuki’s Sengoku were there too, only in their normal uniforms. What was going on? Were they really spies? If they were spies, then Kamio wouldn’t be letting them in, making excuses for them. Unless, of course, they were blackmailing him.

It was fairly easy to blackmail Kamio. He did a lot of things that were against the rules, particularly during Valentine’s Day last year. He was trying to get a senpai to notice him so he snuck into the teacher’s lounge and used the microwave to heat up a bento. Kamio never gave the bento to his senpai, though, because that senpai liked girls and Kamio didn’t want to have his heart broken. Instead, he started staring and moping over Tachibana-san, which would be fine except Tachibana-san wasn’t noticing Kamio. Tachibana-san was noticing that nationals were a week away and Fudomine wasn’t ready.

Well, Shinji was ready, but the rest of the team wasn’t. Ishida and Sakurai were arguing with eachother and Sakurai had a cold that didn’t want to go away. Shinji had a cold earlier in the year and he couldn’t use his Spot technique because his eyes were blurry and his head spun every time he moved. He still practiced, though, because if Mori could practice with the flu, Shinji could practice with a little cold.

“Shinji, let’s do some rallies. There’s a new move I want to try.” Kamio smiled at Shinji.

“You don’t really want to rally with me. You want to distract me from something. Are you in trouble? It’s common for people to distract themselves when they’re in trouble.” Shinji turned and eyed the new observers. “That Rikkai kid isn’t wearing the right sized uniform. I know Rikkai isn’t the kind of rich school that Hyoutei is, but you’d think that, if you’re going to spy, you’d at least wear the proper size uniform.”

“Shinji, can we please…”

“Someone’s going to come see them and notice that they’re wearing weird uniforms. They’re going to think that Fudomine doesn’t have enough class to wear properly fitting uniforms.” Shinji let out a low growl. “They can spy all they want, we’re still going to crush them in nationals. Why are just looking around, we should be warming up again. Because I was waiting for you, my muscles are completely cold. If we don’t warm up again, I’ll pull something and then we’ll lose nationals because Tachibana-san and I are the only ones who are ready to compete at such a high level.”

“Hey!”

Shinji ignored Kamio’s outbursts. Kamio screamed things all the time, most of it useless Tachibana-worship. Tachibana didn’t need worship, he needed to place in a tournament, then maybe he’d chill out. Fudomine always got fourth, though, and you didn’t get anything for fourth place, just bitterness. Tachibana-san had enough bitterness. He was probably going to snap soon. It was good that Kamio hadn’t confessed yet, even if Kamio was going to burst from repression. Kamio exploded on a weekly basis, so he’d be fine….

&-&

Sengoku didn’t think that forcing Ibu to come to karaoke with him was going to prove anything. If anything, it was going to take attention away from Sengoku, which would result in Sengoku’s Sunday afternoons being dateless and boring. Marui was just getting back for the incident the previous week, in which Kikumaru and Jirou forced Sengoku to trick Marui into going on a date with Kirihara. Jirou and Kikumaru had a strange obsession with Kirihara that Sengoku didn’t even want to try to understand. It was weird, end of story.

“We’re almost there!” Sengoku sang. Singing things to Ibu helped Sengoku warm up his voice and not sound as put out as he felt.

Ibu stared and Sengoku had a hard time not flinching. Shinji’s lips began to move and, after twenty silent words or so, sound began to issue forth. “Sengoku-san should tell his friends not to force him into activities. Compulsory activities cause resentment, and resentment between friends can go on for years….”

“It’s not like that!” Sengoku assured in a laughy-shaky voice. “Kamio’s worried that you don’t do anything besides tennis, so he asked that I take you along. It’s no trouble, really. I enjoy the company.” Having a friend come to karaoke with you, particularly a good looking friend, was often beneficial. Two bishounen drew a larger crowd than just one. Add in that most of the bishounen Sengoku knew were taken or not interested in the fairer sex, and Sengoku had a smorgasbord of girls at the ready.

“…Kamio-kun should worry more about himself. His stamina has improved but isn’t up to national game play. If we’re going to do well in nationals, he should be working on his stamina every day. I train my stamina every day in the shower. I hold my breath until I can’t hold it any longer, then I repeat. My tennis magazine said it was an efficient way to work stamina training into your daily routine. Tachibana-san says that it’s essential to remain focused on the game, even when you’re not playing. Does this karaoke place have tennis songs? We should be singing tennis songs to help focus, though I suppose that singing helps the diaphragm to keep its strength, provided that you sing properly, and, if you hold notes long enough, it’s just like holding your breathe in the shower, so I can pull some sort of training from this, even if I’m only coming along because no one else seemed like they wanted to come with you.” Shinji stopped, turning to Sengoku with a light smile. “You don’t have many friends, do you? You hang out with that Rikkai kid and Kikumaru and Kamio and that sleepy Hyoutei kid, but they don’t seem to think much of you. It’s the same on my team. Kamio and Tachibana don’t regard me as an equal. It’s frustrating but understandable. Tachibana’s tennis is much more advanced than mine, and Kamio only pays attention to Tachibana, so there’s no one to hold conversations with. You’re a good conversationalist, Sengoku-san. You always have crowds of people around you, laughing. Does it get tiring?”

Sengoku cut off Shinji’s monologue with a laugh and a pat to the purple haired boy’s back. “Don’t worry Ibu-kun, we’re bound to make some new friends at karaoke! Let’s run, we’re almost there and it will be good training, ne?” Running would also keep Shinji from talking. Fudomine needed to find the boy some help, and quickly. Mumbling like that just wasn’t normal.

&-&

“Did he just make a pass at Sengoku?” Kikumaru asked, poking Marui in the side.

“The bug we planted in Sengoku’s hair isn’t picking up as well as I thought it would, so I can’t really be sure, but I think, yeah, he did.” Marui fiddled with a small box with knobs. No one but Marui knew what the knobs did. Kikumaru was fairly certain one of the knobs was a self destruct device.

“Think we should radio in to team 2?” Team 2 consisted of Kamio, who was following Ibu and Sengoku on a bicycle, and Jirou, who was supposed to be hiding in the pre-arranged karaoke room but was probably napping in the karaoke room lobby. Luckily, Marui put a remote-access alarm in Jirou’s communication earpiece so, when Sengoku was a block away from the karaoke room, the proximity alarm would trigger, waking Jirou, and starting the second phase of the plan. The alarm, though Marui’s design, was Kikumaru’s idea.

“Nah, let’s wait a little and see if we can pick something up. If Sengoku screams, we’ll know Shinji made a move.” Marui laughed and Kikumaru joined him. The image of Sengoku, stuttering and backing away from a passionate Ibu Shinji was much to funny.

“He’d probably run away.” In fact, Kikumaru knew that was what Sengoku would do because, when Sengoku found out his date on the first of April was a guy in drag, he ran as far and as fast as his hyperventilating self could go. Gakuto wasn’t pleased when he heard Oshitari was running around in dresses, dating other men but, once Jirou explained the situation, Gakuto was more than willing to forgive Oshitari in exchange for photographs - large ones.

Marui snickered and fiddled with the knobs. “I really need to go digital,” he snarled when one of the knobs twisted off. “I made this from a few old TVs and I can never get the fine tuner to stay on.”

Kikumaru liked the high tech gadgets, but sometimes Marui went overboard. “You know, we have cell phones. I bet they work just as well.”

Marui looked up from his box, eyes narrowed. “No, they don’t. We _need_ the transmitter.” Marui shoved the knob back on and grinned. “There, that’s the frequency it was at. I think.”

Kikumaru shrugged and checked the time. The prey would be entering the lion’s den shortly. “We should get a little closer so we don’t miss anything.” Kikumaru took out his digital camera and turned it on. “This will make a great addition to the club scrapbook.” As this month’s Historian, it was essential to thoroughly document any and all projects currently underway. Also, Kikumaru wanted blackmail.

&-&

Sengoku-san shouldn’t look so surprised every time Ibu sang. Was it really such a surprise that Ibu Shinji was good at karaoke? Shinji’s mother always said that he had a really good voice and, as a child, often sang while helping out in the kitchen. Sengoku-san’s stares were rude.

“Wow Ibu-kun, you’re so amazing!”

Sengoku’s friends were annoying, too. All the girls in the large room were cooing and trying to touch Shinji’s hair. Shinji spent a lot of time making sure his hair was healthy and the oils from the touchy girls’ hands were going to ruin everything. He wanted to hit them with the microphone. It’s hard to focus on annoying a stranger when your nose is broken.

Shinji’s phone vibrated.

&-&

These girls of Sengoku’s really sucked at karaoke. Jirou didn’t go to karaoke often but, on occasion, he managed to drag Atobe out “slumming” to karaoke bars and ramen stands. Atobe was a great singer, but he hogged the microphone so Jirou rarely got to do more than clap for Atobe and sing duets. Out of practice as he was, Jirou was better than these girls. Strangled lemurs were better than these girls. And Sengoku was blowing kisses that them. What the hell was wrong with him?

“Hai.” Shinji was talking on the phone, curled into himself to hear above Girl 14’s squeaking rendition of “Bubble Rumba Love.” The song was in English, so Jirou had no idea what it was saying, but he was pretty sure Girl was mispronouncing everything. Shinji closed his phone and stepped to Sengoku. “I need to leave. It’s an emergency.” Shinji turned. Shinji left.

Sengoku, busy being fed licorice by a redhead, waved then turned away. Jirou would have to write Sengoku up for being distracted during a mission. Jirou expected it would happen, but it was still in bad taste. Shinji was counting on them to help him through his confusion. “He’s moving out,” Jirou spoke into the topmost button of his shirt. He thought that was where Marui put the microphone thingy. It was either the top button or in his watch.

&-&

“Let’s move out,” Kikumaru whispered before sprinting out of a nearby shop and tailing after Ibu. Kikumaru took out his cell phone and dialed. “Marui, take the northern block and circle round. I’ll track him from this side. He’s on foot, talking on his cell phone.” Kikumaru paused, wiped at his eyes, and looked a little harder. “He’s smiling.”

“What!?” Marui was standing directly behind Kikumaru and the stereo effect made Kikumaru’s ears ring.

“He’s smiling. Check it out.” Kikumaru pointed to Ibu, who was now lounging against the outside of a jewelry shop. “I can’t hear what he’s talking about, though.”

“According to Jirou, Ibu left abruptly after receiving a phone call. We can assume, from the smile and the fact that he doesn’t appear to be talking, that this conversation is outside the bounds of Ibu’s normal interactions.”

“So, what do we do? We could just go up there and talk to him.” Kikumaru watched as Ibu’s smile grew. It was the same smile Oishi had when Kikumaru called. Kikumaru knew this because he liked to hide in bushes and watch Oishi while they talked. “Ibu doesn’t play mixed doubles.”

“Guys, what’s going on?” Kamio staggered up, out of breath, dragging a badly dented bicycle.

“Ibu-kun’s talking to his boyfriend,” Kikumaru explained.

“How do you know this?” Kamio turned and squinted. “Looks like he’s just on the phone to me.”

Marui moved in front of Kikumaru, using his hip to budge the other boy. “We have not confirmed the gender of Ibu’s companion, though we suspect, due to a number of factors, that Ibu is in conversation with a significant other.” Marui smiled, teeth glistening. “Now, we need you to go drag the rest of the info out of him!” Marui pushed Kamio toward Shinji and nearly knocked down a kid on a skateboard.

Kikumaru winced at the chibi’s language, but snickered at Kamio’s white-faced, stuttering apology. Kamio really needed to get through his Kicked Puppy Phase; Tachibana would like him better if he did. “I’m still betting it’s a guy,” Kikumaru told Marui, who was fishing in his bag, probably for a pair of binoculars. For a tensai, Marui’s eyesight was crap.

“We have to wait to pass judgment until we have more conclusive evidence.” Finally, Marui pulled out the small pair of Hello Kitty binoculars Jirou purchased for him at the 100 yen store. “Come on, we can get a little closer.”

&-&

Shinji closed his phone just as Kamio came running up. “Hey!” Kamio gave Shinji an affectionate but quick pat on the back. Shinji did not like prolonged touching of any kind.

“Kamio’s timing is horrible. I’m meeting someone very shortly and you need to be gone before they get here.” Shinji looked down the street. “They were only a few blocks away and it won’t be long before they get here, so you should go before you embarrass me.” Shinji gave Kamio a little shove.

“Embarrass you? Who the hell keeps mumbling and grumbling in public, drawing everyone’s attention?” Kamio didn’t really mind the mumbling, but if he didn’t complain about something, Shinji would escape before Kamio could discover the identity of the mystery caller.

“Why do you have to be so frustrating? I don’t ask you for anything, but this once, when it’s important, you won’t even go away? Can’t you go call Tachibana-san? You like doing that, and you’re going to make me look bad in front of an important person.” Shinji stopped and his eyes widened for a moment before his features settled back into his customary scowl. “It’s too late now. You’ve ruined everything. I will make you pay at the next practice.”

“Yo! Shinji!”

Kamio turned, recognizing the sharp voice of Rokaku’s Saeki Kojirou. “Is he the one you were waiting for?”

Shinji’s scowl deepened, but he didn’t respond.

&-&

“Told you,” Jirou bragged, elbowing Marui in the side.

“Shut up, we don’t know anything yet.” Marui kicked Jirou’s foot. “It’s still up in the air. Maybe they’re doing – secret tennis practice.”

“Oishi and I have secret tennis practices,” Kikumaru offered, the viewfinder of a camera to his eye. “We call them dates.”

“Shut up.”

&-&

“So, what’re you guys up to?” Kojirou kept looking toward the bushes, which meant that he was paying attention to their surroundings and not actually caring about the conversation at hand, which was rude. Shinji told him so. “There’re three spies in the bushes,” Saeki explained, picking up a small piece of concrete and chucking it. Jirou, Marui, and Kikumaru ran from the bushes.

“You should keep your friends out of our business,” Shinji told Kamio, who was trying to escape. It looked like he was trying to escape, at least. Kamio was tip-toeing backwards. Shinji had good eyesight, though not as good as Kojirou’s, and could spot these things. Also, Kamio was Shinji’s best friend and as easy to read as a grade one kanji primer.

“S-sorry.” Kamio laughed in big, gulping breaths and continued to back away.

“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to Kojirou. He’s the one who’s going to be under the impression that you don’t like him. The two of you haven’t even met and you’re running away.” Shinji made a high, nasal sound and narrowed his eyes. “And how do you think it reflects on me? I’ll be considered the type of person that has rude friends, and Kojirou will become upset. You spend all of your time chasing after Tachibana, so it’s only fair that I get to find new friends. In primary school, you chased away Fukuyama-kun when he tried to be my friend. Then, after Fukuyama-kun, you threw your book bag at Watanabe-kun when he tried to help me clean up the classroom because _you_ got me detention for talking in class.”

“Okay, I get it. I’m sorry.” Kamio’s shoulders sunk, which meant he was humoring Shinji and not really listening. Not that Kamio ever listened, he just made noises that sounded like agreement. Kamio’s brain was always somewhere in Tachibanaland, which was why Kamio lost tennis matches. If you can’t concentrate, you can’t win. Kojirou could concentrate, which was why he was going to win. Rokaku would make a comeback at nationals and Shinji would convince Kojirou to play Singles 2 in the Fudomine-Rokaku finals match. Shinji would win, but not by much because destroying a friend’s self confidence was cruel.

&-&

“Okay, you won. Shut up about it already.” Marui threw a cherry stem at Jirou.

Jirou easily dodged the stem, which hit a daydreaming Kamio. “It’s not _my_ fault I’m always right.”

“Ne, Brother Akira, are you okay?” Kikumaru was worried about Kamio. It had been three days since the confrontation with Ibu and Saeki and, after a few follow-up missions, it was determined that the two were, in fact, dating.

“He could’ve told me,” Kamio sighed, chin resting on the table, eyes focused on the slow fizzing of his Sprite.

“No drama queens during club business,” Sengoku reminded. His neck had a flurry of red spots on it. He touched them every now and then to see if they still hurt. Judging from his wincing, Kikumaru was wagering they did.

“Sorry.” Kamio drew his head up like it weighed fifty pounds.

“It’s not so bad.” Marui’s smile was shaky as he patted Kamio lightly on the head. Marui didn’t do well with consoling people. Marui was better at distracting them. “It could be worse. He could be going out with Kirihara.”

“No he couldn’t.” Jirou smiled viciously. “If he went out with Kirihara, then who would you go out with?”

Marui scowled. “I am _not_ going out with Kirihara. Where the hell do you people get these idiot ideas?”

Kamio laughed, and Marui winked at Kikumaru, using a menu to hide the action. “I dunno,” Kikumaru continued, grinning. He would take any opportunity to embarrass Marui; the Rikkai player embarrassed the rest of them often enough. “You’re both about the same height, and there was that really hot make out session on the courts that you had. I bet he’d _love_ to have another go at you.”

“You are gross.” Marui looked down at his sundae and pushed it away. “You’ve actually made me lose my appetite. Are you proud?”

“Very,” Kikumaru nodded. Kamio was clutching at his stomach and his face was red from laughter.

“You know, you owe me for losing that wager,” Jirou said, tapping at his chin thoughtfully. “I wonder what I should do about that.”

“Date,” Kamio demanded through hiccups.

“Definitely a date,” Sengoku said. “With a girl.”

“That’s cruel,” Kikumaru snickered.

“For Brother Bunta or for the girl?” Jirou asked.

“The girl.” Kamio, Kikumaru, and Sengoku replied in unison.

The conversation devolved into pot-shots at Sengoku’s heterosexuality and a general prostitutioning of Marui to Kirihara. Sengoku decided that Marui should go out with a girl, just to see if Kirihara got jealous. Kikumaru recorded the conversation using a recorder cleverly hidden under the table. Later, if Marui welched on his debt to Jirou, Kikumaru was going to offer to sell the recording to Jirou, with the usual Meddlers discount, of course.


End file.
